What are we waking up to?

The rand is trading below the R14.30’s against the US dollar ahead of today’s MTBPS as all emerging markets are stronger this morning. The budget speech will be key for further ZAR strength and is expected to be a market mover locally.

Across the pond US equities saw a massive sell-off yesterday after lower than expected earnings from major US corporates, this in return boosted the price of gold.

The price of Brent crude fell below $80/barrel as Saudi Arabia pledge to increase production to as much as possible, calming concerns over a fall in supply after sanctions placed on Iran by the US.

A broader ZARUSD range for the day is R14.00 - R14.50, but a possible break above R14.50/$ if the medium term budget disappoints.

 - TreasuryONE

Latest currency moves

USDZAR    14.2346

EURUSD    1.1470

EURZAR    16.3189

GBPUSD    1.2986

GBPZAR    18.4758

AUDZAR    10.1058

CADZAR    10.8790

CNYZAR    2.0508

ZARJPY    7.8996

CHFZAR    14.2976

 - TreasuryONE

Good morning, welcome to Fin24's Markets LIVE blog.

Here's a quick snapshot:

The rand started on a firm footing, strengthening two cents after opening at R14.25 to the US dollar as all the attention shifts to new Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's maiden Medium-term Budget Policy Statement.

The minister is set to deliver his speech at 14:00.

Brand reputation expert Solly Moeng told Fin24 in a studio interview that Mboweni's biggest task is to assure not only the markets and investors, but also ordinary South Africans and the taxpayers.

Other local market moving data to be released today is the Consumer Price Index.

On the global front, stock markets slumped on Tuesday on geopolitical risks stretching from US tensions with Russia and Saudi Arabia to trade issues with China, as well as Italy's budget stand-off with the European Union.

In Asia, equities fell again on Wednesday extending the previous day's geopolitics-fuelled sell-off, with energy firms taking another battering in response to an oil market rout.